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I should be getting the hammock by thursday and I have plans to camp on my aunt's land this weekend. I am going to try my therm a rest prolite partially inflated. Depending on the weather that night I will either use my zero bag or my 20 bag. I do kind of want to go with the 20...the house and my truck will be close by in an emergency.

honestly, no clue!! My friend has some scales, I'll see if she can't bring them over this weekend. I made it from the climashield insulation from Outdoor Wilderness fabrics that was listed at 60" wide and 2oz (1/4") and used 1.1 oz ripstop for the top and bottom. I use an old sheet to make the uq pattern and pinned darts all over it to make it conform to the bottom of my hammock. then when I went to sewing, I cut out all the extra material that was in the darts. I'm gonna be starting a winter version as soon as I can get my thoughts straight on how I want to design it. (which means I don't have a clue yet how to work with the heavyer climashield (thick!!!)) If you're interested in making your own, look into the directions here and look into www.owfinc.com

I should be getting the hammock by thursday and I have plans to camp on my aunt's land this weekend. I am going to try my therm a rest prolite partially inflated. Depending on the weather that night I will either use my zero bag or my 20 bag. I do kind of want to go with the 20...the house and my truck will be close by in an emergency.

I have used a therma-rest pad in my HH EXPED, (test hang in the basement) the only thing was it would slide out from under me, and I would have to shift it back under me.

I have the SS for my HH and I found on my first hang (in the 35-40's) I needed to use a ccf pad. The only thing I discoved the second moring was that my bag was damp from condinsation on the CCF pad. From what I was told and othjer will also say this is common.

Next hang I will use the space blanket the HH reccommends with it..

Here's a thought bring your 0 bag and use it as additional insulation under you. Meaning Pad then 0 bag then 20 bag that you'll sleep in.

Go for it. Especially if you're truck will be close. Just keep some extra gear in it - or even better, since you won't be miles and miles into the wilderness, maybe just pack the extra gear and hang pretty close to the truck. Start with what you think will do the job and you would be willing to carry long term. Add more as needed, if needed.

Just a tip on using CCF: Don't put it in first thing. Hop into your hammock first and move around for a while until you find the "sweet spot". Note your position, then pop out and place the pad (space blanket first if you want to use it - or between the pad and your fleece if you go that route) as close to where you think you were as you can. If you're getting into the sleeping bag, lay that out, fully unzipped, and get back in. If you're using the bag as a top quilt, all the better, just toss it in the corner and pull it over you once you're in position (using that fleece you mentioned over the pad would be ideal if you use the bag as top quilt - I think it would be much more comfortable).

Trying to move a CCF pad around once you're laying on it tends to send people into the realm of unfortunate expletives. I don't have a great deal of trouble doing so, but it's definitely easier to get it situated right the first time.

Oh, and I second whoever talked about the truck windshield reflector. If you can get one with ccf on back rather than bubble wrap it works much better. It's a great replacement for the crinkly, noisy, it will rip on you, space blanket.

If I decide that I really enjoy the Hammock thing I feel like it would be a smart investment to make, especially becuase of the intensity and length of my upcoming hike, why skimp on something like warmth.

Have you ever packed a down camping quilt?? The uq that pack the smallest are the down ones. My synthetic uq is also easy to pack because it's a summer one. When I pack up my backpack (GraniteGear Vapor Ki) I have the hammock (w/out tarp) & my clothes bag in the bottom. Next I just stuff my down quilt inbetween them, filling out the free spaces, Then I stuffed in my uq around that. then comes things like food, stove, personal gear bag (things I've gotta carry bag) and on top is my tarp (if wet it's on the outside of my pack) I've gone out 4 weekends so far with my hammock, 3 was with some type of pad and the 4th was with my uq. The uq packed up way easier than the pad did, for me. Once you start camping with the hammock, you'll see how much "extra" material/stuffing you have left over with your sleeping bag that you're not using.(if it's under you, you're still not useing it because it's squashed flat) That's the point when it dawned on me "why am I carrying this extra weight" That's when I started looking into camping quilts and then uq's.

If I decide that I really enjoy the Hammock thing I feel like it would be a smart investment to make, especially becuase of the intensity and length of my upcoming hike, why skimp on something like warmth.

Smart hikergirl!

Originally Posted by hikergirl1120

I am wondering how "packable" is a UQ?

Very! As TinaLouise said, the down ones are going to be lighter and pack smaller than the synthetics. Something to give some thought to while practice-packing; try not balling up your quilt in its stuff sack, just throw it in the pack. Pack everything else around/on it. By doing that, you eliminate the 'wad' of quilt that forms a unyielding ball in your pack. The quilt is allowed to fill-in all the nooks and crannies and saves you quite a bit of useable room. The danger here is exposure to water. I wouldn't even think about it unless I was using a pack-liner of some sorts.